The Broiler Chicken Project

Who doesn't love baby chickies? They are cute and cuddly and love to be held and kept warm. We just got 30 baby broilers. They start out cute and cuddly just like any other baby chick, but quickly become big eating machines. That is simply what they are bred for.

We are involved in our local 4-H club where we participate in the Broiler Project. This project is sponsored by the county fair and a local chicken plant provides any child wanting to raise chickens for this contest with 10 chicks. It is a great way to have a fun fair project and provide us with fresh farm raised chicken. These are white Cornish cross chickens, straight run and probably a Cobb breed. This is a common breed for meat raising. They are a docile, simple minded chicken that grows quickly and thinks mostly of eating.

For the contest they have 6 weeks to raise the chicks. They must have a “pen” of three chickens that weigh at least 4 lbs each. The three that are chosen to be in your pen should be evenly sized and symmetrical and really, the heaviest that you have. This pen is then judged mostly according to weight, but also by breast meat size, uniformity, and health of the chickens. The largest percentage of the judging is based on weight, so your overall goal besides health is to grow those chickens!

The first year that we tried this project, we didn't have any chickens to come near the 4 lb minimum size required to show. This was frustrating. We let them range. They ran around everywhere chasing bugs. They ate so many junebugs that I knew they must be getting fat. I'll never forget when Caleb was heartbroken that one of the chickens ate a junebug “pet” that he had worked so hard to catch and tie a string around it's legs. That chicken just flew up and ate that junebug in midair. Well, needless to say, all that aerobic activity didn't turn into tasty chicken. When we butchered them they were quite tough and not so meaty.

Part of the problem was that I wasn't committed to the investment of fattening them up. Feed for growers gets expensive. But, 30 butchered chickens can be a lot of good meat. So, since learning from our first year, we spend what we need to on feed and keep them penned up. I think if we were only growing them for meat I would feed and raise them a little differently. This is a contest, though, and we have to strategize.

We feed them game bird starter throughout the 6 weeks because it has a higher protein content. Getting them to eat as much as possible all the time is a good idea. Some of the participants start out from the beginning setting timers hooked to lights and fans to wake the chicks up at night so they will eat more. After the first three weeks we weigh out the birds and separate the biggest ones, usually 12 – 15 chicks. The lighter half, which will always be mostly pullets, will go in a different pen and will get fed mostly corn or other grains. They will grow out slower, but we will let them get to a heavier weight before butching them in a couple of months. With the heavier half (which only have three more weeks to make the weight) we continue to feed them a high protein, high fat diet. We start getting more intense with their feed and will wake them up at night to eat, too. By now the summer weather is taking a tole on them and they need a fan on them full time. There are a lot of tips and tricks online about special feeds that can be mixed for them, and we have tried a few of them. By the end of the 6 weeks we have a flock of huge chickens! We have never raised the heaviest at our show, and I cannot believe how big some kids can grow those birds! Since my kids have participated, they have placed high enough to sell their ribbon in the premium sale that the fair holds for the meat (livestock) classes. This is a way that the community can bid on the kids winning ribbon and help them recoup some of the cost of raising their animals.

I have been very pleased with the quality of meat from these birds. I especially like to let them grow a bit larger to make a good baking or stewing sized chicken. I love to cook a chicken in a pot and make lots of delicious and nutritious stock. Some of our favorites made with a stewed chicken include chicken and dumplings, chicken and noodles and chicken enchilada soup.

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Share your thoughts.

chris sharpsteen

5/30/2011 11:59:54 PM

Thank you Mother for printing a divergent point of view from some readers, who always want hear their own thoughts; how boreing. It is variety that sparks debate and kicks the ball around and down the field. If cornish cross chickens are "frankenfood" then so is a brandywine tomatoe, as it lies a long breeding path away from the starting line. We need to spend less energy on a given amt. of protien during this greenhouse phase so faster has a smaller eco footprint. There is also a bigger picture here agricultural producers have to be able to make a buck and what is a reasonable consumer expectation given our cultural cheap food attitude. Ah there is some room for discussion and divergent opinions.

chrism

5/23/2011 10:39:45 AM

I'm surprised to see this article in Mother Earth News. Raising cornish cross belongs in a mainstream magazine. What happened to raising animals humanely: "Some of the participants start out from the beginning setting timers hooked to lights and fans to wake the chicks up at night so they will eat more."

I'm disappointed the editors thought this was worth of inclusion.

To the author: do you just set aside principals every time your kids are in a contest?

veronica vatter

5/23/2011 6:35:13 AM

I've heard of people soaking the feed in milk or buttermilk to grow them bigger. oh and give them unlimited water, right up to going in the car to the judging.

herb

5/22/2011 1:03:06 PM

The way this contest is layed out, it sounds like the "local chicken plant" is teaching the local kids (future work force)how to grow chickens the fastest and most profitable way, just like the commercial growers do, which, in my opinion, is the wrong way. They are being taught how to grow chemically enhanced frankenchickens. Which translated, for me, into just another multi-national corp ensuring it has a trained, read that "brainwashed", workforce for the foreseeable future. If they can plant the seeds of "bigger, fatter, faster, better, more money" now, they will have them for a lifetime. Shame. The only difference between these contest chickens and commercially produced ones is that some of these can actually stand up and walk.

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